Is Phil Ivey Playing On PokerStars Under “RaiseOnce”?

Saturday, January 7th, 2012 by Ryan

The rumblings about Phil Ivey are back, and this time there is a rumor swirling that he could potentially be back playing at the online poker tables. If you remember, Ivey was a Full Tilt Poker pro before the site shut down. Full Tilt has left all of their players in incredibly tough spots, and has remained in the news for pretty negative reasons in the past months. It took Ivey quite a while, but he’s finally found his way back onto the poker tables, and the rumors are, that this time it’s at the other online poker juggernaut, PokerStars. There have been talks all throughout the major poker forums that the player by the screen name “RaiseOnce” on Stars is one of the most popular players in the game, Phil Ivey.

According to the research, whoever RaiseOnce is, plays from Mexico; which oddly enough is where Phil Ivey owns a home. Obviously if that was the only proof on the topic, it would be tough to put two and two together, but there are a few other things that point to this player being Ivey. The name RaiseOnce is connected to Ivey before Black Friday, and it seems that he has been playing on there for a while. A few months before Black Friday, there was a time where Ivey and RaiseOnce disconnected from Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars at the same time. They also re-connected at almost the exact same time, which helped put two and two together for fans.

Many players have also gone about stating that the two players have very similar styles of play, and the also play a similar number of tables at the same time when it comes to multi-tabling. The language during play and other factors such as the high stakes play, and only high buy-in poker tournaments as help lead players and fans to believing that this player is none other than Ivey. Ivey is an eight time World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner, and it will be interesting to see what the outcome is of the hype surrounding his potential playing under this username.

Ivey has been in the news for quite a few different things, but the most recent was the fact that he sat out of the 2011 World Series of Poker, because it wasn’t fair to other players who have money still locked up at Full Tilt Poker. Some fans and players don’t agree with Ivey coming back to the tables (if he is), before everything was sorted out with Full Tilt. In the end, Ivey did as he said and sat out through the World Series of Poker, and it’s tough to say that a player shouldn’t be able to play poker, especially when it is how they make a living.

Ivey is definitely a name to keep an eye out for in 2012, as he’ll most likely be back on the live poker tournament circuit, and if these reports are true, then he’s back in the online poker world as well. You’ll most likely be able to find him at the high stakes tables online, and of course the largest live poker tournaments as well.